As they like to say, Henry Ruggs III has those things you can’t teach. In particular, he has speed. Lots of it. He also has pretty good hands. Making for two of the three vital aspects of a good NFL receiver.
The third area is route running. And thus far through half his rookie campaign, he is still a work in progress.
“We love the speed factor, it’s something you can’t coach. But the route running and consistency that we want to see him bring to the game,” said offensive coordinator Greg Olson this week. “He’s another guy that’s been out, just finished up outside here with him working the toe-touches, the toe-drags on the sidelines. So, it’s experience for him and route running.”
Not dragging or tapping his toes have cost Ruggs two big catches the past two weeks, one for a touchdown. So, he’s giving it extra emphasis of late.
“It’s definitely improving,” Ruggs said of his route running. “I got a lot of things that I can keep working on. For instance in the games I had the two catches that were called out of bounds so I got to work on getting two feet in. I’m not in college anymore, but, just as a route runner, I just want to be more fluent and more consistent, so just working on it day in and day out both in practice and even after.”
Much like teammate Josh Jacobs, Ruggs wasn’t heavily featured in the offense at Alabama. But that didn’t stop either from being the first player taken at their position in the draft. Then again, running back and wide receiver are two very different positions especially in terms of how polished they need to be in order to play at the next level.
“At Alabama, [Jerry] Jeudy was the guy, he’s the guy that again,” Olson continued. “I don’t want to say developing because he (Ruggs) is a great player right now, but his route running can get better and we see a really high ceiling in terms of that.”
That whole ‘high ceiling’ thing gets thrown around a lot. The translation is that the player has a lot of potential but is far from a finished product. In that, Olson mentioned Ruggs’s former teammate Jerry Jeudy who was taken three spots behind Ruggs and is the Broncos’ current leading receiver.
As it happens, Jeudy is also going to take the field in Las Vegas this Sunday across from Ruggs. The Raiders know what they’re up against and are hoping not to have buyers’ remorse.
“Jeudy, he’s smooth,” said Jon Gruden. “That’s the best way to define him, he is really smooth. He knows how to run routes. I would say that’s the best way I can describe him. You could probably show him the route you want done one time, and he could do it. He really knows how to creatively express himself on the football field. I love watching him play.”
Jeudy has 30 catches for 484 yards and two touchdowns this season which is three times as many catches as Ruggs (10) and more than twice the yards (220) and touchdowns (1).
Those numbers would be a bit closer had Ruggs made absolute sure to keep his feet inbounds on those two catches. The Raiders were playing the long game when they selected him, but with that comes risk. Jeudy was far more polished, far less risky and is showing it. If he rips the Raiders secondary on Sunday and Ruggs doesn’t, there will be a lot of uneasy Raiders fans out there. Which means the time could be now for Ruggs’s route running to get up to (his) speed.